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Overview

John Green meets Rainbow Rowell in this irresistible story of first love, broken hearts, and the golden seams that put them back together again.

Henry Page has never been in love. He fancies himself a hopeless romantic, but the slo-mo, heart palpitating, can't-eat-can't-sleep kind of love that he's been hoping for just hasn't been in the cards for him—at least not yet. Instead, he's been happy to focus on his grades, on getting into a semi-decent college and finally becoming editor of his school newspaper. Then Grace Town walks into his first period class on the third Tuesday of senior year and he knows everything's about to change.

Grace isn't who Henry pictured as his dream girl—she walks with a cane, wears oversized boys' clothes, and rarely seems to shower. But when Grace and Henry are both chosen to edit the school paper, he quickly finds himself falling for her. It's obvious there's something broken about Grace, but it seems to make her even more beautiful to Henry, and he wants nothing more than to help her put the pieces back together again. And yet, this isn't your average story of boy meets girl. Krystal Sutherland's brilliant debut is equal parts wit and heartbreak, a potent reminder of the bittersweet bliss that is first love.

About the Author

Krystal Sutherland was born and raised in Townsville, Australia, a place that has never experienced winter. Since then she's lived in Sydney, where she edited her university's student magazine; Amsterdam, where she worked as a foreign correspondent; and Hong Kong. She has no pets and no children, but is fond of naming inanimate objects: in the Netherlands she owned a Dutch bicycle called Kim Kardashian, and a small, inflatable velociraptor called Herbert. Our Chemical Hearts is her debut novel.

Read an Excerpt

CHAPTER 1

I ALWAYS THOUGHT the moment you met the great love of your life would be more like the movies. Not exactly like the movies, obviously, with the slow-mo and the hair blowing in the breeze and the swelling instrumental soundtrack. But I at least thought there would be something, you know? A skipped beat of the heart. A tug at your soul where something inside you goes, “Holy shit. There she is. Finally, after all this time, there she is.”

There was none of that when Grace Town walked into Mrs. Beady’s afternoon drama class ten minutes late on the second Tuesday of senior year. Grace was the type of person who made an impression on any room she walked into, but not for the kind of reasons that generate instant and undying affection. She was of average height and average build and average attractiveness, all things that should’ve made it easy for her to assimilate into a new high school without any of the dramatic tropes that usually inhabit such storylines.

But three things about Grace immediately stood out, before her ordinariness could save her:

1. Grace was dressed head to toe in guys’ clothing. Not the tomboy, skater-girl kind of look, either, but legitimate dudes’ clothing that was way too big for her. Jeans that were meant to be skinny were held on her hips by a belt. Despite it being only mid-September, she wore a sweater and a checkered shirt and a knit cap, and a long leather necklace with an anchor on the end.

2. Grace looked unclean and unhealthy. I mean, I’d seen junkies that looked in better shape than she did that morning. (I hadn’t really seen that many junkies, but I’d seen The Wire and Breaking Bad, which totally counts.) Her blond hair wasn’t brushed and was badly cut, her skin was sallow, and I’m almost certain if I’d smelled her at any point during that day, she would’ve reeked.

3. If all this wasn’t enough to really screw over her chances of fitting in at a new high school, Grace Town walked with a cane.

And that’s how it happened. That’s how I first saw her. There was no slow-mo, no breeze, no soundtrack, and definitely no skipped heartbeats. Grace hobbled in ten minutes late, silently, like she owned the place, like she’d been in our class for years, and maybe because she was new or because she was weird or because the teacher could see simply by looking at her that a small part of her soul was cracked, Mrs. Beady said nothing. Grace sat on a chair at the back of the black-walled drama room, her cane resting across her thighs, and said nothing to anybody for the entire class.

I looked at her twice more, but by the end of class I’d forgotten she was there, and she slipped out without anyone noticing.

So this is certainly not a story of love at first sight.

But it is a love story.

Well.

Kind of.

CHAPTER 2

THE FIRST WEEK of senior year, before Grace Town’s sudden apparition, had passed by as uneventfully as high school possibly can. There’d been only three minor scandals thus far: a junior had been suspended for smoking in the girls’ bathroom (if you’re going to get suspended for something, at least make it something not cliché), an anonymous suspect had uploaded footage of an after-school fight in the parking lot to YouTube (the administration was freaking out over that one), and there were rumors going around that Chance Osenberg and Billy Costa had given each other an STD after having unprotected sex with the same girl (I wish I was making this up, dear readers).

My life had remained, as always, entirely scandal-free. I was seventeen years old, a weird, lanky kid, the type you might cast to play a young Keanu Reeves if you’d already spent the majority of your budget on bad CGI and craft service. I’d never so much as secondhand-smoked a cigarette, and no one, thank God, had approached me about doing the no-pants dance sans a prophylactic. My dark hair skirted my shoulders, and I’d grown particularly fond of wearing my dad’s sports coat from the eighties. You could say I looked something like a male Summer Glau crossed with Severus Snape. Subtract the hook nose, add in some dimples, and hey presto: the perfect recipe for one Henry Isaac Page.

I was, at the time, also uninterested in girls (or guys, in case you were wondering). My friends had been in and out of dramatic teenage relationships for close to five years now, but I had yet to even have a real crush. Sure, there’d been Abigail Turner in kindergarten (I’d kissed her on the cheek when she wasn’t expecting it; our relationship rapidly declined after that), and I’d been obsessed with the idea of marrying Sophi Zhou for at least three years of elementary school, but after I hit puberty, it was like a switch inside me flipped, and instead of becoming a testosterone-driven sex monster like most of the guys at my school, I failed to find anyone I wanted in my life in that way.

I was happy to focus on school and getting the grades I needed to get into a semi-decent college, which is probably why I didn’t think about Grace Town again for at least a couple of days. Maybe I never would’ve if it wasn’t for the intervention of one Mr. Alistair Hink, English teacher.

What I know about Mr. Hink is still very much confined to what most high schoolers know about their teachers. He had bad dandruff, which wouldn’t have been half as noticeable if he didn’t insist on wearing black turtlenecks every day, the color of which clearly displayed the fine white dust on his shoulders like snow falling on asphalt. From what I could gather from his naked left hand, he was unmarried, which probably had a lot to do with the dandruff and the fact that he looked remarkably like Napoleon Dynamite’s brother, Kip.

Hink was also fiercely passionate about the English language, so much so that on one occasion when my math class was let out five minutes late and thus ate into our English lesson, Hink called up the math teacher, Mr. Babcock, and gave him a lecture about how the arts were no less valuable than mathematics. A lot of students laughed at him under their breaths—they were mostly destined for careers in engineering or science or customer service, I suppose—but looking back, I can pinpoint that afternoon in our sweltering English classroom as the moment I fell in love with the idea of becoming a writer.

I’d always been decent at writing, at putting words together. Some people are born with an ear for music, some people are born with a talent for drawing, some people—people like me, I guess—have a built-in radar that tells them where a comma needs to go in a sentence. As far as superpowers go, grammatical intuition is fairly low on the awesomeness scale, but it did get me in with Mr. Hink, who also happened to be in charge of running and organizing the student newspaper I’d volunteered at since sophomore year in hopes of one day becoming editor.

It was about midway through Mrs. Beady’s Thursday drama class in the second week of school when the phone rang and Beady answered it. “Henry, Grace. Mr. Hink would like to see you in his office after school,” she said after chatting for a few minutes. (Beady and Hink had always been friendly. Two souls born in the wrong century, when the world liked to make fun of people who still thought art was the most extraordinary thing humanity ever had or ever would produce.)

I nodded and purposefully didn’t look at Grace, even though I could see in my peripheral vision that she was staring at me from the back of the room.

When most teenagers get called to their teacher’s office after school, they assume the worst, but like I said, I was tragically free of scandal. I knew (or hoped I knew) why Hink wanted to see me. Grace had been an inmate at Westland High for only two days, hardly long enough to have given another student trichomoniasis and/or handed out any after-school beatdowns (although she did carry a cane and look angry a lot).

Why Mr. Hink wanted to see Grace was—like much else about her—a mystery.

CHAPTER 3

GRACE WAS ALREADY waiting outside Hink’s office when I got there. She was dressed in guys’ clothing again today, different stuff this time, but she looked a lot cleaner and healthier. Her blond hair had been washed and brushed. It made a remarkable difference to her appearance, even if having clean hair made it fall in uneven chunks around her shoulders, like she’d cut it herself with a pair of rusted hedge trimmers.

I sat down next to her on the bench, entirely too aware of my body, so much so that I forgot how to sit casually and had to purposefully arrange my limbs. I couldn’t get my posture right, so I kind of slumped forward into an awkward pose that made my neck ache, but I didn’t want to move again because I could see her looking at me out of the corner of her eye.

Grace was sitting with her knees pressed up against her chest, her cane wedged between them. She was reading a book with tattered pages the color of coffee-stained teeth. I couldn’t see the title, but I could see that it was full of poems. When she caught me looking over her shoulder, I expected her to close the book or angle it away from me, but instead she turned it ever so slightly toward me so that I could read too.

The poem Grace was reading, I assumed over and over again because the page was dog-eared and food-stained and in generally bad shape, was by a guy called Pablo Neruda, whom I’d never heard of before. It was called “I do not love you,” which intrigued me, so I started to read, even though Hink had not yet succeeded in making me like poetry.

Two lines in particular had been highlighted.

I love you as certain dark things are to be loved,in secret, between the shadow and the soul.

Hink stepped out of the office then, and Grace snapped the book shut before I could finish.

“Oh, good, I see you’ve met,” said Hink when he saw us together. I stood up quickly, keen to unravel myself from the weird position I’d folded my body into. Grace shuffled to the edge of the bench and rose slowly, carefully distributing her weight between her cane and her good leg. I wondered for the first time how bad her injury was. How long had she been like this? Was she born with a bad leg or did some tragic accident befall her in childhood? “Well, come inside.”

Hink’s office was at the end of a hall that might’ve been considered modern and attractive sometime in the early eighties. Pale pink walls, fluorescent lighting, painfully obvious fake plants, that weird linoleum that’s supposed to look like granite but is actually made up of hundreds of little bits of plastic filled in with clear laminate. I followed Hink, my steps slower than they normally would be, because I wanted Grace to walk next to me. Not because I wanted her to, like, walk next to me, you know, but I thought she might like it, that it might be a nice thing to do, for her to be able to keep up with someone. But even when my pace felt maddeningly slow, she still hung back, hobbling two steps behind me, until it felt like we were in a race to see who could go the slowest. Hink was ten steps in front of us by then, so I sped up and left her behind and must’ve looked like a total weirdo.

When we reached Hink’s office (small, bland, green-tinged; so depressing it made me think he was probably part of a fight club on the weekends), he ushered us inside and motioned for us to sit in the two chairs in front of his desk. I frowned as we sat down, wondering why Grace was here with me.

“You’re both here, of course, because of your exceptional writing abilities. When it came time to pick our senior editors for the newspaper, I could think of no two better—”

“No,” said Grace Town, cutting him off, and her voice was such a shock to me that I only just realized it was the first time I’d heard her speak. She had this strong, clear, deep voice, so different from the broken and timid image she portrayed.

“I beg your pardon?” said Hink, clearly taken aback.

“No,” Grace said again, as if this were explanation enough.

“I . . . I don’t understand,” said Hink, his gaze flicking to me with this pleading look in his eyes. I could practically hear his silent scream for help, but all I could do was shrug.

“I don’t want to be an editor. Thank you, really, for thinking of me. But no.” Grace collected her bag from the floor and stood.

“Miss Town. Grace. Martin came to me specifically before the start of the school year and asked me to look at your work from East River. You were going to take over as editor of their newspaper this year, I believe, if you hadn’t transferred. Isn’t that right?”

“I don’t write anymore.”

“That’s a shame. Your work is beautiful. You have a natural gift for words.”

“And you have a natural gift for clichés.”

Hink was so shocked that his mouth popped open.

Grace softened a little. “Sorry. But they’re just words. They don’t mean anything.”

Grace looked at me with this kind of disapproving expression I wasn’t expecting and didn’t understand, then slung her backpack over her shoulders and limped out. Hink and I sat there in silence, trying to process what’d just happened. It took me a good ten seconds to realize that I was angry, but once I had, I, too, collected my bag and stood quickly and made my way toward the door.

“Can we talk about this tomorrow?” I said to Hink, who must’ve guessed that I was going after her.

“Yes, yes, of course. Come and see me before class.” Hink shooed me out and I jogged down the corridor, surprised to find that Grace wasn’t there. When I opened the far door and stepped out of the building, she was already at the edge of the school grounds. She could move goddamn fast when she tried. I sprinted after her, and when I was within earshot, I shouted, “Hey!” She turned briefly, looked me up and down, glared, and then kept on walking.

“Hey,” I said breathlessly when I finally caught up with her and fell in step beside her.

“What?” she said, still speed walking, the end of her cane clicking against the road with every step. A car behind us beeped. Grace pointed violently at her cane and then waved them around. I’d never seen a vehicle move in a way I’d describe as sheepish before.

“Well . . . ,” I said, but I couldn’t find the words to say what I wanted to say. I was a decent enough writer, but talking? With sounds? From my mouth? That was a bitch.

“Well what?”

“Well, I hadn’t really planned this far into the conversation.”

“You seem pissed.”

“I am pissed.”

“Why?”

“Because people work their asses off for years to get editor, and you waltz in at the beginning of senior year and have it offered to you on a platter and you turn it down?”

“Well, congratulations. I don’t understand why you’re angry. There’s normally only one editor anyway, right? The fact that I said no doesn’t impact you at all.”

“But . . . I mean . . . Why would you say no?”

“Because I don’t want to do it.”

“But . . .”

“And without me there, you’ll get to make all the creative decisions and have the newspaper exactly how you’ve probably been envisioning it for the last two years.”

“Well . . . I guess . . . But . . .”

“So you see, this is really a win-win for you. You’re welcome, by the way.” We walked on in silence for a couple of minutes longer, until my anger had entirely faded and I could no longer remember exactly why I’d chased after her in the first place.

“Why are you still following me, Henry Page?” she said, coming to a stop in the middle of the road, like she didn’t give a shit that a car could come hurtling toward us at any second. And I realized that, although we’d never been introduced and never spoken before today, she knew my full name.

“You know who I am?” I said.

“Yes. And you know who I am, so let’s not pretend we don’t. Why are you still following me?”

“Because, Grace Town, I’ve walked too far from school now and my bus has probably already left and I was looking for a smooth way to exit the conversation but I didn’t find one, so I resigned myself to my fate.”

“Which is?”

“To walk in this general direction until my parents report me missing and the police find me on the outskirts of town and drive me home.”

Grace sighed. “Where do you live?”

“Right near the Highgate Cemetery.”

“Fine. Come to my place. I’ll drop you.”

“Oh. Awesome. Thanks.”

“As long as you promise not to push the whole editor thing.”

“Fine. No pushing. You want to turn down an awesome opportunity, that’s your decision.”

“Good.”

It was a humid afternoon in suburgatory, the clouds overhead as solid as cake frosting, the lawns and trees still that bright, golden green of late summer. We walked side by side on the hot asphalt. There were five more minutes of awkward silence where I searched and searched for a question to ask her. “Can I read the rest of that poem?” I said finally, because it seemed like the least worst of all my options. (Option one: So . . . are you, like, a cross-dresser or something? Not that there’s anything wrong with that; I’m just curious. Option two: What’s up with your leg, bro? Option three: You’re definitely some kind of junkie, right? I mean, you’re fresh out of rehab, yeah? Option four: Can I read the rest of that poem?)

“What poem?” she said.

“The Pablo whoever one. ‘I do not love you.’ Or whatever it was.”

“Oh. Yeah.” Grace stopped and handed me her cane and swung her backpack onto her front and fished out the threadbare book and pushed it into my hands. It fell open to Pablo Neruda, so I knew then for sure that it was something she read over and over again. It was the line about loving dark things that I kept coming back to.

I love you as certain dark things are to be loved,in secret, between the shadow and the soul.

“It’s beautiful,” I said to Grace as I closed the book and handed it back to her, because it was.

“Do you think?” She looked at me with this look of genuine questioning on her face, her eyes narrowed slightly.

“You don’t?”

“I think that’s what people say when they read poems they don’t understand. It’s sad, I think. Not beautiful.” I couldn’t see how a perfectly nice love poem was sad, but then again, my significant other was my laptop, so I didn’t say anything.

“Here,” Grace said as she opened the book again and tore out the page with the poem on it. I flinched as though I were in actual pain. “You should have it, if you like it. Pretty poetry is wasted on me.”

I took the paper from her and folded it and slipped it into my pocket, half of me horrified that she’d injured a book, the other half of me elated that she’d so willingly given me something that clearly meant a lot to her. I liked people like that. People who could part with material possessions with little or no hesitation. Like Tyler Durden. “The things you own end up owning you” and all that.

Grace’s house was exactly the type of place I expected her to live. The garden was overgrown, gone to seed, the lawn left to grow wild for some time. The curtains on the windows were drawn and the house itself, which was two stories tall and made of gray brick, seemed to be sagging as if depressed by the weight of the world. In the driveway there was a solitary car, a small white Hyundai with a Strokes decal on the back windshield.

“Stay here,” she said. “I’ve got to get my car keys.”

I nodded and stood by myself on the front lawn while I waited for her. The car, like everything else about her, was strange. Why did she walk (or hobble, rather) fifteen minutes to school every day if she had a license and a readily available vehicle? Every other senior I knew was desperate for the privilege of driving to the mall or McDonald’s during lunch, escaping the confines of the school grounds. And then, in the afternoons, bypassing the bus line and rolling right on home to food and PlayStations and sweet, sweet comfortable sweatpants.

“Do you have your license?” Grace said from behind me. I jumped a little, because I hadn’t even heard her come out of the house, but there she was, car keys dangling off her pinkie finger. These, too, had Strokes paraphernalia attached to them. I’d never really listened to their stuff before, but I made a mental note to look them up on Spotify when I got home.

“Uh, yeah, actually. I got it a couple of months ago, but I don’t have a car yet.”

“Good.” She threw me the keys and walked to the passenger side of the car and pulled out her phone. After twenty seconds or so, she looked up from her screen, her eyebrows raised.

“Well? Are you going to unlock the car or not?”

“You want me to drive?”

“No, I thought it would be hilarious to hand you the keys and stand here until someone invents teleportation. Yes, Henry Page, I want you to drive.”

“Uh, okay, I guess. I’m a bit rusty, but yeah. Okay.” I unlocked the car and opened the door and sat in the driver’s seat. The inside of the car smelled like her, the musky, masculine scent of a teenage boy. Which was very confusing for me, to say the least. I started the engine—so far, so good—and took a deep breath.

“I’ll try my best not to kill us both,” I said. Grace Town did not reply, so I laughed at my own joke—a single, awkward “ha”—and then I put the car in reverse.

My grandmother would’ve looked cooler driving than I did on the journey home. I hunched over the steering wheel, sweating, hyperaware that I a) was driving someone else’s car, b) hadn’t driven any car at all for months, and c) had only scraped through my driving test because my instructor was my violently hungover second cousin twice removed, and I’d had to stop three times to let him vomit on the side of the road.

“Are you sure you passed your driving test?” Grace said, leaning over to check the speedometer, which revealed I was sitting five miles under the speed limit.

“Hey, I only had to bribe two officials. I earned my license.” I swear I might’ve almost seen her smile. “So you came from East River, huh?”

“Yeah.”

“Why’d you change schools in senior year?”

“I’m all about adventure,” she said dryly.

“Well, we are a particularly thrilling institution. I can definitely see the appeal.”

“Hink seems like a riot. I bet he gets into all sorts of shenanigans.”

“Life of the party, that one.”

And then, thank God, it was over. I pulled up in front of my house and relaxed my fingers from the steering wheel, aware for the first time of how tightly I’d been clenching my muscles.

“I don’t think I’ve seen anyone drive that tensely since . . . Do you need a minute to compose yourself?” she said.

“What can I say? I’m a rebel without a cause.”

I expected Grace to slide over to the driver’s side, but she told me to turn the car off. We both got out and I handed her the keys and she locked the door like she meant to come inside. I hesitated. Was I supposed to invite her in? But then she turned to me and said, “Okay. Good-bye. I’ll see you tomorrow. Or maybe not. Who knows where I’ll be,” and she started hobbling down the street in the complete opposite direction from which we’d come.

“There’s not much down there but a storm-water drain and a cemetery a block away.” (The graveyard was close enough that its proximity had resulted in several counseling sessions in elementary school due to a brief yet intense period when I was convinced my great-grandfather Johannes van de Vliert’s ghost was trying to kill me.) Grace didn’t say anything, didn’t look back, just lifted the hand that wasn’t holding her cane as if to say Iknow and kept on walking. I watched her, entirely puzzled, until she disappeared around the next street corner.

“Jesus, Suds, you scared the crap outta me,” I said, clutching at my chest. Sadie was twelve years older than me, a celebrated neuroscientist, and was generally considered both the golden child and black sheep of the family simultaneously. We looked a lot alike: black hair, slightly buggy eyes, dimples when we smiled. Except Suds was slightly more cutting edge than me with her septum piercing, tattoo sleeve, and intricate dreadlocks, all souvenirs from her rocky teenage years.

“Haven’t seen or heard from you in, like, two days, kid. I was starting to think Mom and Dad had murdered you and buried you in a shallow grave.” This was, of course, a strategic lie. Suds was going through a fairly shitty divorce from her fairly shitty doctor husband, which meant she spent about 90 percent of the time she didn’t spend at the hospital at our house.

“Sadie, don’t be ridiculous,” Dad said from the kitchen, dressed in his usual getup of a Hawaiian shirt, male short shorts, and black spectacles. (His fashion sense had rapidly declined after he’d moved his carpentry workshop into the backyard three years ago. Honestly it was a miracle to find him in something other than pajamas.) Sadie and I got our hair from him. Or at least, I assumed we did. The ever-present stubble on his chin was dark, but he’d been bald for the majority of my life. “We’d make his grave at least four or five feet deep. We don’t half-ass murder in this house.”

“Toby and Gloria can attest to that,” Sadie said, referring to an event six years prior to my birth that involved a pair of goldfish, insect spray, and the accidental yet untimely death of her aquatic pets.

“Twenty-three years, Suds. It’s been twenty-three years since your goldfish died. Are you ever going to let it go?”

“Not until I have my vengeance!” Sadie yelled dramatically. A toddler started crying from the back of the house. Sadie sighed. “You’d think after three years I’d start getting used to this whole motherhood thing, but I keep forgetting about the damn kid.”

“I’ll get him,” I said, dumping my schoolbag and heading down the hallway to where Ryan usually slept in Sadie’s old room. The kid had been, much the same as me, an accident and a surprise. Mom and Dad had only ever planned to have one child: twelve years after they had Sadie, they got stuck with me.

“Ryan, man, what’s up?” I said when I pushed open the door to find my two-and-a-half-year-old nephew, whom Dad babysat on weekdays.

“Henwee,” he rasped, rubbing his eyes. “Where’s Mama?”

“Come on, I’ll take you to her.”

“Who’s the girl, by the way?” Sadie asked as I walked back down the hallway holding Ryan’s hand.

“The girl?”

“The one who drove you home.” As she scooped Ryan up, Sadie had this thin, lopsided grin on her face. I’d seen that look many times before, when she was a teenager. It always meant trouble.

“Oh. Grace is her name. She’s new. I missed my bus, so she offered me a ride.”

“She’s cute. In a weird, Janis Joplin, will probably die at twenty-seven kind of way.”

“This magnificent debut from 26-year-old Australian author Krystal Sutherland tracks the unlikely romance of Henry Page and Grace Town, two very different teens chosen to edit their high school paper together…You could probably learn a thing or two from [Henry’s] and Grace’s emotional odyssey.”—Teen Vogue, “October’s Best New YA Books”

“This book delves far deeper than the typical high school romance, and its savvy wordplay and Henry’s self-deprecating charm will win over fans of Stephen Chbosky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower and John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars.”—School Library Journal

“Henry is surrounded by well-drawn friends and family, and Grace is a fascinating cipher, in a book that’s anything but a predictable romance.”—B&N Teen, “Most Anticipated October YA Books”

“I'm sorry to have to do this to you, but the love story of Henry and Grace is going to kick you in the emotional gut.”—Bustle, “Best New YA Novels Coming in October”

“Perhaps one of the most entertaining features of the novel is the irreverent and funny teen banter that masks their deeper feelings. Best of all, though, is the engaging story that unfolds at just the right pace, drawing the reader in as the stakes get higher and decisions must be made.”—VOYA

“Henry’s first language is clever, angst-driven wit, and this pair is as sharp and quippy as John Green’s Hazel and Gus … Fans of romance driven by stylized narration are the audience for this.”—BCCB

From the Publisher

08/01/2016Anyone who has felt the ache of first love will relate to Henry Page, a bookish high school senior unexpectedly swept off his feet. Henry, who has never had a girlfriend, isn’t immediately attracted to new student Grace Town, who enters the school with a conspicuous limp, “dressed head to toe in guys’ clothing” (“I’d seen junkies that looked in better shape than she did that morning,” Henry says). Yet after Grace and Henry are asked to co-edit the school newspaper, his interest in her grows, fueled by Grace’s on-again-off-again flirting. As romance blossoms, secrets about Grace’s past and current situation emerge, and Henry begins to think that Grace may be beyond his help. Eloquently conveying the complexity of love and grief, debut novelist Sutherland creates a story filled with intriguing and memorable characters. Henry’s quirky friends, dry-witted parents, and rebel-turned-neuroscientist sister (who offers sage advice on matters of the heart) add touches of brightness to this dark romance. Ages 14–up. Agent: Catherine Drayton, Inkwell Management. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

08/01/2016Gr 9 Up—Henry Page always thought love would be simple, and then he meets transfer student Grace Town. Grace is a mystery, with her pronounced limp, unflattering boys' clothes, and penchant for intense poetry. When she is recruited to be an editor of the school newspaper, which Henry is finally helming, life gets complicated very quickly. Intrigued by Grace's intelligence and her bizarre behavior, the protagonist is soon way over his head in a relationship that is, by turns, disturbing, charming, and eerily romantic. He tries to unravel Grace's story while surrounded by his family and friends, who are quirky in ways that are mostly delightful and occasionally annoying. There are Henry's oddball parents, his brilliant older sister (formerly an infamous juvenile delinquent), and his best friends Lola and Murray. A heartsick Australian Romeo whose antics provide some comic relief, Murray never becomes more than a sight gag; Lola, however, infuses the book with knowing dialogue and a fair amount of heart. The ups and downs of Henry and Grace's relationship will give students a genuine portrait of what it is like to be drawn to someone who may not be good for you but who will teach you something about yourself and others. VERDICT Despite occasional false notes, this book delves far deeper than the typical high school romance, and its savvy wordplay and Henry's self-deprecating charm will win over fans of Stephen Chbosky's The Perks of Being a Wallflower and John Green's The Fault in Our Stars.—Sara Scribner, Athens Academy, GA

School Library Journal

2016-07-20Two teenagers suffer through their first heartbreak.Henry Page has spent his high school years with his nose to the grindstone, avoiding romantic relationships and focusing on becoming the editor of the school paper. At the start of his senior year Henry is offered the job, but there’s a catch: transfer student Grace Town is offered the gig as well, making the two white teens co-editors. Sparks fly as Henry works with the aloof, unkempt new girl, who walks with a cane. As Henry and Grace grow closer, Henry falls deeper for her even as he learns just how broken she is. In her debut, Sutherland mixes her love story with equal parts hope and ominous dread. There is never any doubt that this couple is marching toward romantic oblivion, but it’s an effectively drawn journey. The characters speak with a John Green–esque voice, but they are never overbearingly precocious. Narrator Henry’s a smartly rendered character, a decent kid who has goals and works hard to achieve them. His new goal is Grace’s affection, and the unstoppable force meeting the immovable object that is Grace’s emotional unavailability provides the novel some of its sharpest moments. When the walls tumble down, the connection between the two is clearly an unhealthy one, and the author pulls no punches, devastating Henry, Grace, and readers in equal measure. An emotionally engaging and draining debut. (Fiction. 12-16)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

I didnt like the ending it was dissapointing but i still loved it to death

Amber__H

More than 1 year ago

Our Chemical Hearts brings us through a world of heartbreak and young love. It is a brilliant novel full of mysteries, plot-twists and character development. It displays the imperfection of love and how there isn’t always a fairy tale ending; sometimes, one has to face the hard truth. It is heart-jerking, and sends a powerful message that needed to be sent. My heartstrings ache with all the emotion in this novel, and the ending was a whirlwind of feelings. I don’t think I’ve ever cried so hard or felt so much sympathy for the characters.
We meet Henry, a bright and intelligent boy who loves to write, and Grace, a solemn, odd girl with men’s attire and cropped hair. Grace is very mysterious, an enigma; her backstory is one of the most heartbreaking I’ve ever read, and her past is so deep and full of guilt. Henry imagines himself as the desperate romantic with his first love, however, as he discovers, that’s not how love usually unfolds. I adore his light-hearted, hopeful, caring self, and he is so determined and dedicated with all that he does. When he begins to fall for Grace, he is naive and innocent, and is desperate to “heal” her of whatever her struggles were. He desires to learn about Grace and uncover her pain; little does he know the black hole he’s getting himself into. All of the characters are very realistic and relatable; I felt every raw emotion that they felt: all the pain, love, frustration, and guilt. I was completely immersed in their lives, and every chapter I was living through myself. The bonds of friendships and loved ones are inexplicable strong, and the novel displays perfectly of how much a bond with someone can affect one’s life.
Our Chemical Hearts is definitely thought-provoking and has so many hidden meanings that contribute to the message that the novel sends. Each chapter is special and important; each one is intriguing and surprising. Every time I discovered something new about someone’s backstory or feelings, it blew my mind.
I read this novel in one day and I couldn’t put the book down. It was such a unique and shocking ending; it was a complete plot-twist, and the character’s actions at the end broke my heart. I felt so much emotion, I didn’t know what to think when I closed the book. It’s one of my favorite novels I have read because of all the emotion and the message it sends to its readers. The moral of young and sometimes poisonous love is important to notice, especially if one is in a relationship that isn’t healthy. In Henry and Grace’s case, we learn that love if sometimes difficult, and there are several obstacles that might complicate a relationship. Love doesn’t always work out, but we have to learn to manage our remorse. The novel also introduces dealing with a huge loss, and how to cope and heal from that tragedy. It talks about personal acceptance and finding the different personalities of one person; sometimes, there are hidden sides of people that we don’t know about that we should accept and cherish- after all, it is part of who they are. Krystal Sutherland is a very descriptive author, and portrays this love story perfectly. I loved her dialogue and the feelings shown, and overall her work is fantastic. Our Chemical Hearts is such an inspirational book, and is imbedded deep in me.
“Don't mourn a failed love; there is no such thing. All love is equal in the brain.” - Krystal Sutherland, Our Chemical Hearts

Anonymous

More than 1 year ago

I did not like this book. It was too depressing. I know life is about love, living, and death. But this book had nothing positive about it. Henry was a great guy, who deserved happiness, yet he received nothing in return from Grace. I felt that Grace was selfish, self-absorbed, and immature. It was about young love, but also about despression, and mental instability. Those 3 things should not be experienced at the same time. There is enough negativity in the world as it is. The writer should give young people hope for a better tomorrow. I would not recommend this book. Young people have enough trouble as it is. Gtx

Valerian70

More than 1 year ago

Grace Town has taken the huge step of changing schools in Senior Year and this has brought her to the notice of Henry Page. Grace Town walks with a cane, wears boys/mens clothes and has self cut hair; despite these traits which would be fodder for the bullies in any other school this makes her all the more enigmatic and interesting to Henry.
Henry is, to say the least, inexperienced and more than a little naive. His only real romantic interlude to date was with his best friend Lola who decided, directly after kissing him, that she was actually a lesbian. It's fair to say that Grace Town turns his world completely upside down and inside out.
This is a quirky first love story set over the first semester of the school year. It deals with the enormity of the emotional shock that this love failing generates. Primarily this is via Henry's friend Murray who has loved and lost "Sugar Ghandi" and would suffer any ignominy to get her back. Then the all consuming grief of Grace for her previous boyfriend Dom and finally the revelations of Henry's sister Sadie about the real state of their parent's marriage.
Told with a mixture of prose and text exchanges the story flows easily and reads semi-realistically. I did find that I couldn't really get invested in any of the characters and after the first half of the book I wanted to knock Henry and Grace's heads together and tell them to stop being so internalised and selfish. Then again, that is the true nature of the teenager I suppose.
There's nothing intrinsically wrong with this book, but I think it suffers a little from me being older than the target demographic by quite a few years.

Chancie

More than 1 year ago

Powerful, intense, unique, and holds onto strong but subtle themes. Really enjoyed it, and it pulled on a lot of heartstrings. Good writing, good characters, original and new kind of love story. I really appreciated this one.

Anonymous

More than 1 year ago

This book was so captivating, honest, and orginal. My heart ached and the narrator seemed so real. I loved it.

TheThoughtSpot

More than 1 year ago

Our Chemical Hearts by Krystal Sutherland drew me in with the beautiful cover and my interest built with the synopsis. The mysterious Grace and the non-mysterious Henry are chosen to be the senior editors of the school newspaper. Grace flat out says no! The intrigue of Grace and the nonchalance of Henry pulled me into the story immediately. Complicated characters, complex lives and an emotional roller coaster make this book therapeutic. This young adult story is charming and endearing, romantic and humorous, and tragic, all at the same time. Wow! What a read! 5 stars for cleverness and un-put-down-ability! The author's reference page is charming also. Highly recommended!

arelireads

More than 1 year ago

Our Chemical Hearts is a novel that proves that love is not perfect but it is (and will always be) a beautiful feeling.
This book is so heartbreaking. I felt so empty and in so much pain during and after reading it. It just feels so real. It's like every teen's adventure on first love. When you read it, you will definitely remember your (stupidity) first love... like when you thought you were meant to be together. You thought that you wanna marry each other. But it turns out that you're just a fool in love.
But this is not just a heartbreaking love story. It is also an inspiring friendship story. Henry, Lola and Murray are totally friendship goals!!! They were always there for each other, through both the good and tough times.
What I love most about this novel is that IT IS GENERALLY AWESOME. It was written in an awesome way. It has awesome characters (i.e. Henry, Henry's friends, Henry's parents). I also love how the characters were really easy to love. I admit that I sort of had an attachment to the characters. :D :D
I also think that this is more like John Green meets Jennifer Niven and Rainbow Rowell kind of book.
Our Chemical Hearts is like love... It is so beautiful that you would not mind getting hurt by it. Congratulations for this awesome debut, Krystal Sutherland!
**I received a review copy from the publisher. This does not affect my opinion about the book.**

mdemanatee

More than 1 year ago

I went into this book super skeptical, and it charmed me. It was deeper than I expected. It handled things in an honest way. It had some super fun best friends. And I dealt with tough issues without feeling like it was exploiting or romanticizing those issues.

Lisa-LostInLiterature

More than 1 year ago

Let’s be honest here… I couldn’t resist this cover. I saw the cover, THEN read the synopsis, and was immediately all GIVE THIS TO ME NOW!!! So yeah, this book was going to be read by me, regardless of any other factors. When I received a copy at my door I jumped with excitement!! All kinds of happiness from me. And I’m happy to say I was pretty delighted with this read!! (Did I seriously just use the word “delighted” in a sentence?! 0_0)
I’m a sucker for stories narrated by males, so let’s just put that out there. Growing up in a household with only brothers, and the fact that most of my friends were boys, I seem to relate to the male voice on a deep level. I rarely have the pleasure of reading a male narrated story, but it’s something I almost always love. Henry was an easy character to love for sure. I instantly felt for him and wanted only the best for this guy. He won me over in a matter of mere pages.
The secondary characters were pretty incredible as well. I loved the banter between them and how humor was brought to an otherwise sad story. The fact that this story addressed love in all of its goodness AND ugliness was refreshing. Love isn’t always sunshine and rainbows. It doesn’t always end in a HEA. It isn’t always all happiness. To see the darker side of love in a YA book was a nice change from the norm, despite its being hard to read at times. The most complex of the secondary characters has to be Grace Town. A tortured soul through and through. Grace has experienced loss that many others at her age haven’t. She’s a very in-depth character that’s hard to pick apart at first, but slowly begins to unravel as the story progresses.
There were a few little things here and there that I didn’t 100% love, but overall this was a wonderful story. I loved the honesty and bluntness of it, and how it showed the realistic side of love, not just the fairy-tale side. I also loved the messages that teens are sure to take away from this story. I should note as well that this story does contain some alcohol consumption and sexual situations, so it may not be appropriate for younger teens. I’d definitely recommend this to older teens looking for a realistic story that they can relate to.
(Thanks to Penguin Teen for the review copy!)

Caroles_Random_Life

More than 1 year ago

I liked this book but have found that it is a rather tough one for me to rate. I was initially grabbed by the awesome cover and after reading the description, I just had to read it. There were things that I really liked about it and other parts that just didn't do a lot for me. I have been wavering between 3 and 4 stars and have finally settled on a 4 star rating since it was a rather enjoyable read overall. It was a really quick read that took a few turns that I didn't expect.
I loved the characters in this book. Henry was great. I loved him and his group of friends. His parents and sister were also quite amazing. I wasn't as sold on Grace. From the beginning of the book, it was very obvious that Grace was keeping something major to herself so it is no wonder that her character was more of a mystery. I did enjoy the interactions between Henry and Grace when they were together.
The main focus of this book is really solving the mystery that is Grace and Henry builds a relationship with her. Grace does have some tragedy in her past which is greatly impacting her present. Henry is patient and tries to be there for Grace even though he wants to move forward and focus on a future with her. For Henry, Grace becomes his total focus often to the detriment of other things in his life. In addition to being a story of first love, Henry learns a lot about himself, his family, and his friends over the course of the story.
I would recommend this book to others. I do think that this book is appropriate for older teens. There are some elements to the story that younger teens may not be ready for including drinking and sexual situations. This is the first book by Krystal Sutherland that I have read and I plan to look for her work in the future.
I received an advance review copy of this book from G. P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers via First to Read for the purpose of providing an honest review.

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